People Share The Weirdest Backhanded “Compliments” They’ve Heard
Everyone likes a good compliment, but not all compliments are equally complimentary. Some compliments hide a sneaky insult, others are tone-deaf, and some leave the recipient with far more questions than answers.
Redditors discussed this very situation in a thread, sharing some of the weirdest and just plain baffling backhanded compliments they've ever received.
A dentist would know
"I went to this dentist who kept commenting on how strong my tongue was. He even got the hygienist to come over and look at it. I was quite confused."
"I'm famous at my dentist office for producing more saliva than any other patient. So that's cool."
Is that a good thing?
"'You are the only person i know who looks better with your glasses on.' I really have no idea how to take that one."
"I am in the same boat. I think I look TERRIBLE without glasses on but love the way I look with them on and I have friends that agree."
Scratch and sniff
"The most recent one went something like 'you look like you're going to smell bad, but you really don't. You smell amazing.'"
"I get an unusual amount of compliments about my scent. My roommate used to habitually sniff me. I had to ask her to stop."
Little bit of small talk
"Once, at a urinal in Denver International Airport, the guy in the urinal next to me, said I had 'nice flow.' So..."
"Either it was a very elderly man or a guy into performance art."
She meant well
"I had a friend who was struggling with an eating disorder. And I have always been overweight. She said, 'You're not fat. Fat people disgust me and you don't disgust me.' It was sweet in her own way."
"As far as I know, she's doing better. That was a good five years ago."
Natural talent
"Just today, I was shoveling rocks at work, and someone said 'Man, you have the best shoveling form I have ever seen.' I was just shoveling rocks, I didn't know i did it in a special way!"
"I'm a Canadian, considering most of us have to shovel our driveways every winter, it's shocking how many people still do it with terrible posture!"
Weird pickup lines can work
"A guy at a bar once told me that my teeth looked like they had been polished by elves while I was sleeping. I totally made out with him later."
"That is either a really classy pick up line, or he was sky-high."
Are you a chinchilla?
"Girls pet me and say my hair is soft, it gets weird after the fifth girl joins in..."
"I don't mind if my friend does it but then when randoms join, that's weird."
A true thoroughbred
"Was longboarding home one night when a drunk guy in a car yelled 'Girl, you got the legs of a race horse!'"
"You should have neighed at him."
From the mouths of babes
"I was standing in line at a post office and a 6 year old girl looks at me inquisitively for a bit and then finally says: 'You don't look like a boy at all!'"
"I am a woman. Thanks little girl."
Underrated trait
"I will never forget the day the bus driver told me I have 'unusually symmetrical eyebrows.'"
"Relish them. Most women spend their entire life coming to terms with the fact that their eyebrows are sisters, not twins."
Better than a grating voice
"'When you have kids they will be so lucky to have a mom with such a soothing voice.'"
"A friend of mine once hurt his back, and I was helping him out, making sure he didn't injure himself more. He looked me in the eyes and told me that I would make a wonderful mother."
A little bit weird
"A girl I know was once stroking my arms and talking about how soft my skin was then out of the blue said: 'I can feel your veins. I wonder what they'd look like without any skin.'"
"She of course immediately followed it up by saying that that was really weird and she's not a psychopath. But I know who to point the finger at when peoples' cats start disappearing."
Charming, but dead inside
"'You have the charm of a serial killer with nothing behind the eyes.'"
"I totally get this. One of my buddies is very charming, but I swear, ever since I met him, I have thought he looked like a serial killer. Just something in his smile, I guess."
Just naturally gifted
"I've spent... a large amount of the past year with my shirt off in public, usually against my will."
"I've since got people complimenting me multiple times on the shape of my chest hair. Apparently it looks like a tree - some have even compared it to The White Tree of Gondor."
What kind of photographs?
"A guy came up to me at a party and told me 'I'm not trying to be a creep...but your body is really proportionate. I think you'd look great in photographs.'"
"Are we talking photographs... or photographs?"
Dare to be stupid
"My SO compared my curly hair to Weird Al's thinking it was compliment on how perfectly curled it was. Needless to say, he figured out there was probably a better way of saying it."
"He compared to Weird Al and you didn't take it as a compliment? What kind of a world do we live in?"
Is that a euphemism?
"I'm a girl and I work at a pizza station in a grocery store."
"I had a guy watching me for a while before he decides to come over and tell me in a creeper voice: 'I like how you toss your dough.'"
Hidden skill revealed
"Someone once told me I'm the sort of person with whom one would try to rob a bank."
"I asked why and was told it would be best if I didn't know. And now I think about it every time I go to the bank."
Mountain calves
"I was once told I have the calves of a mountain man; big, strong, and hairy. I was pleased even if it was a woman in her 60s who told me."
"People don't usually compliment me or men in general very much."
Credibly accused?
"Got accused of plagiarism all through high school and college. I guess that means I'm smart! Or it could just mean I look stupid."
"I used to dumb down papers because I was afraid I'd get called out for plagiarism. I hated doing it."
Doing his civic duty
"A drunk guy I'd never met before once stopped me on the street to tell me that he'd gone ahead and voted for me even though his girlfriend thought I was cute."
"I've never run for any kind of office, and I have no idea who he thought I was."
Game recognize game
"I was at the post office a few years back and some guy looked me dead in the eye and said...'You have excellent pen form, great technique.'"
"I write like a 5th grader and was genuinely confused, I thought he may be joking and kinda just did a laugh but his response was deadpan and I'm pretty sure he was serious. I just awkwardly returned to my form and he left."
Were you wearing a Tool shirt?
"'You look like you listen to Tool' This one still puzzles me."
"That is a VERY good thing. It means you're sophisticated. Now go listen to Tool. (Unfortunately people are surprised by the kind of music I listen to)."
Finally someone notices
"'You have really cool, stylish mouse movements.' Said to me by a fan as I was warming up at a LAN tournament. He didn't even mean my hands IRL, he meant the way I moved my crosshair in game."
"It was actually a really cool compliment because its the type of thing that hardly ANYONE sees about a player and could be their most interesting or unique aspect."
That went sideways
"'You have the prettiest eyes. I just want to take them out of your head and eat them.' Uhm... Thank you?"
"Almost like blueberries. Do you mind?"
Factually accurate
"I used to have this thing where I wanted to be a mermaid when I was a little girl (who didn't) so I'd take endless bubble baths in the hopes of turning into one."
"I was telling this to a friend of mine who just shrugged and said, "it's okay. You're still a beautiful land mammal"."
No harm intended
"'You have the eyes of a crocodile about to eat me up.'"
"To be fair, my eyes probably are the colour of a crocodile's. But I wasn't going to pounce on a drunk 80 year old Irish man."
Unusually specific
"'If you shaved your head, worked out everyday, and wore Hollister, you would literally be the hottest guy.'"
"I remember the exact words because it is the only compliment I have received from someone who is not family."
Paying lip service
"Senior year I walked up to my friend who was talking with one of his friends. All of a sudden, the girl my friend is talking to stops mid-sentence and tells me 'You have the most perfect lips' then went back to talking to my friend."
"I just said thank you kind of awkwardly and just walked away."
Dan Gray
